Court records show that Lopatic, of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is accused of assaulting a police officer, civil disorder, encroaching on restricted areas, physical violence in restricted areas and disorderly conduct in a restricted building.
The criminal complaint and FBI testimony against Lopatic remain sealed, but a motion for remand is shedding light on the government’s case against him.
According to the motion, an officer from the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) was trying to rescue another officer from protesters outside the Capitol when Lopatic “emerged from the crowd, climbed a handrail and attacked” the officer.
In describing the assault, which was captured on video from the police video camera, prosecutors say that Lopatic, “assaulted (the policeman) with continuous punches to the head” and that, “at one point, the defendant grabbed (the policeman) ) over the head and seemed to hit him with an uppercut. “
Prosecutors also said that after the alleged attack, Lopatic was seen stealing “the camera from the body of another MPD officer and subsequently destroyed”. In stealing the camera, prosecutors said Lopatic had to break a “human shield” of “protesters who were trying to protect (the official) from the violent crowd”.
Lopatic told FBI agents that he stole the camera and got rid of it while returning home after the riot, according to the motion.
In the months and weeks leading up to the rebellion, prosecutors also said that Lopatic posted “threatening messages about elected leaders in Washington”. Lopatic reportedly posted a series of photos of the birds he shot while hunting, writing in the captions that he named Democratic politicians.
“I won a double today,” Lopatic reportedly wrote, according to a screenshot in the motion. “Two shots, two deaths. Both shots to the head. I caught a cock and a chicken. I called them Joe and Kamala.”
They also say that he wrote on January 1, defending others to “MOUNT IN THE CAPITAL 6 JANUARY 2021. UNITED WE ARE, WE MOVE AND WE FIGHT.”
CNN contacted Lopatic’s lawyer, who declined to comment on the charges. Court records show that a federal judge granted the prosecutor’s motion for Lopatic’s pre-trial detention.